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For exalted souls, there is only one fatherland - Spiritual Jerusalem, and not the local cities, which are confined within tight limits and often change their inhabitants; one celebrity of the race is to keep within oneself the Image of God and to become like the Prototype, as far as possible for prisoners of the flesh and capable of accepting only some streams of goodness; one dominion is to prevail over the evil one, not to give up souls into captivity and not to yield victory in exploits for piety, when vice fights with virtue, the world with the world, the collapsing world with the constant world, the inexorable ascetic with the courageous ascetics, and Belial arms himself against Christ (1). Yesterday you, soul, were a Canaanite woman, crooked from sin (see Luke 13:11), and now you are straightened by the Word; do not bend again, do not bend to the ground, like one burdened with the bonds of the evil one, do not reach such humiliation that it is difficult for you to rise! Yesterday you dried up from severe bleeding, because you exuded murderous sin, but now the stream has dried up, and you are blooming, because you touched the hem of Christ’s garment, and the flow of blood stopped (Matthew 9:20; Luke 8:44). Keep cleansing, so as not to become bleeding again and lose the strength to touch Christ and steal salvation. For Christ does not often allow Himself to be hidden, although He is very philanthropic. Yesterday you lay on your bed, relaxed and motionless, and did not have a person who would lower you into the font when the water was troubled (see John 5:7), but now you have found together man and God, or, better to say, the God-man; you were taken from the bed, or, better yet, you took the bed yourself and publicized the good deed. Be afraid to lie down on your bed again, relaxed from the pleasures of sin and bodily rest, but go healthy, remembering the commandment: you have recovered, sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you (John 5:14), if after such a good deed you turn out to be bad. Lazarus! get out (John 11:43), it was said to you, lying in the tomb, with a great voice (for what is louder than the Word?); and you came out not for four days, but for many days, having risen with the Three Days, and were released from the burial shrouds. Do not become dead again, do not remain with those living in tombs, and do not be bound by the chain of your own sins. It is unknown whether you will rise again from the graves until the final and general resurrection, which will bring all creation to judgment, not to be healed, but to hear the verdict and give an account of everything that has been acquired, good or bad. If you were still covered with leprosy, that is, the ugliness of a vicious life, and now, having been cleansed of purulent matter, you have assumed a healthy image, show your cleansing to me, your priest, so that I can find out how much higher it is than the purification of the law. Do not be one of the nine ungrateful people, but imitate the tenth. Although he was a Samaritan, he was more grateful than others. Be careful that you do not blossom again (see Lev. 13:1) and that an incurable disorder does not occur in your body. Previously, thrift and stinginess made your hand dry, but now let almsgiving and philanthropy stretch it. An excellent healing for a sore hand is to lavish, to give to the poor everything that you have, to exhaust generously until you reach the bottom (perhaps it will also flow out food for you, like the Canaanite woman, especially if you happen to feed Elijah), and recognize poverty as a good acquisition for Christ, who became poor for us. If you were deaf and dumb, then let the Word announce you, or, better yet, restrain the one who announced it; do not stop your ears from the teaching and instruction of the Lord, like an adder from the voice of a spellcaster (Ps. 57:6) (1). The soul is God's breath, and, being heavenly, it suffers mixing with earthly things. This is a light contained in a cave, yet divine and unquenchable. For it is indecent for the image of the great God to be destroyed ingloriously, as reptiles and irrational animals are destroyed, although sin intensified to make it mortal. The soul is not the nature of destructive fire, because it is not in the nature of the devourer to animate the devoured. She is not the nature of air, now exhaled, now inhaled, and never remaining at rest. It is not a bloody current running through the body, not even the harmony of the constituent parts of the body brought into unity, because the nature of flesh and immortal form is not the same. And what advantage would the virtuous have over the most vicious, if the dissolution of the elements made them either good or bad? Why do the dumb ones not have a rational nature, since the dumb ones also have a harmony of form and mortal flesh? According to this teaching, he is the best in whom there is the improvement of the elements. But they reasoned this way on the assumption that something with the removal of which the soul leaves the body must be recognized as ensouling. Why can’t you also call food inspiring, without which it is absolutely impossible for a mortal to live, since only food strengthens? I also know another teaching, which I will never accept, because I do not have some common soul, divided by everyone and wandering in the air. Otherwise, everyone would inhale and exhale the same soul, and all those who live in the world, having given up their spirit, would remain in other living ones, because the nature of air at different times is diffused in different things. And if the soul is something abiding, what did it have in itself and what constituted my embryo - also a living being in the womb of the giving birth, if I was attracted by it from the outside? And if you assume that the one giving birth is the mother of many children, then it is the duty of the wives to impute to her honor that she has given birth to a greater number of souls. And this is not a teaching of smart people, but an empty bookish amusement, as if the soul constantly changes different bodies, each in accordance with a previous life, good or bad, as a reward for virtues or as some punishment for sins, they either clothe or unmask the indecent soul, like a person in clothes; in vain they trouble themselves, turning the wheel of the evil Ixion 67, they force her to be now an animal, now a plant, now a man, now a bird, now a snake, now a dog, now a fish, and sometimes both twice, if the wheel turns that way. Where does this end? But I have never seen a wise beast with the gift of speech, or a speaking thorn. The crow is always talkative, the silent fish always swims in the salty moisture. If, as the inventors of such an empty teaching themselves say, there will be a final reward for the soul, then it will suffer punishment either without the flesh - and this is very surprising - or with the flesh - then which of the many will you consign to fire? What is most incomprehensible is how, after you connected me with many bodies, and this connection made me know a lot, only one thing escaped my mind, namely: what skin did I wear in advance, which one later and in how many did I die; because my bond-maker was not so rich in souls as in bags. Or, and this was a consequence of long-term wandering, that I fell into oblivion of my former life? Now listen to our most excellent teaching about the soul. And we will try to sweeten the song somewhat by starting it like this. There was a time when the high Word of the mind, following the great mind of the Father, established a world that had not existed before. It spoke, and everything that He desired happened. But when all this - earth, sky and sea - made up the world, a spectator of Wisdom - the mother of all, and a reverent king of the earth - became needed. Then the Word said: “The vast sky is already inhabited by pure, ever-living servants, immaculate minds, good Angels, hymns, incessantly singing My glory. But the earth is decorated only by irrational animals. Therefore, it pleases Me to create such a kind of creatures, which would contain both, a kind of creatures, intermediate between mortals and immortals, a rational person who would be rejoiced in My deeds, would be a wise secret of heaven, a great ruler of the earth, a new Angel from dust, a singer of My power and My mind. So said the Word and, taking part of the newly created earth, with immortal hands made my image and gave it His life, because He sent into it the Spirit, which is a stream of the invisible Divinity. Thus, from dust and breath, man was created - the image of the Immortal, because in both the nature of the mind reigns. Therefore, like the earth, I am tied to this life, like a particle of the Divine, I carry on my chest the love for the future life. This is how the first-born man was united, and subsequently the body is taken from the flesh, but the soul is mixed in an unknown way, coming from outside into the earthy composition, as He who united it knows, Who in the beginning breathed it in and coupled His image with the earth. And another, coming to the aid of my song, boldly and following many, will add the following reasoning. Just as the body, initially dissolved in us from dust, subsequently became a stream of human bodies and does not cease from the primordial root, enclosing others in one person, so the soul, breathed in by God, from that time on enters into the formed composition of man, being born again, from the original seed distributed to many and always retaining a constant image in mortal members. That is why the soul receives intellectual dominion as its destiny. But just as in thin pipes and the strong breath of even a very skilled person produces weak and discordant sounds, and when wide-sized pipes are given to him, then they pour out the most perfect sound, so the soul, which turns out to be powerless in a weak structure, manifests itself in a strengthened structure and then reveals the whole mind (2). And you, my soul (may a decent word be given to you), who, where and what are you? Who made you a corpse-bearer, who tied you to life with firm bonds, who made you constantly gravitate towards the earth? How did you, the spirit, mix with fatness, how did you, the mind, mate with the flesh, did you, the light one, combine with heaviness? For all this is opposite and opposes one another. If you entered into life, having been sown along with the flesh, then how destructive such a union is for me! I, the image of God, was born the son of shame, with shame I must call lust the mother of my dignity; because the beginning of my vegetation was the expired seed, and it faded away, then became a man, and soon will not be a man, but dust - these are my last hopes! And if you, my soul, are something heavenly, then it would be desirable to know where you come from? And if you are God’s breath and God’s lot, as you yourself think, then put aside untruth, and then I will believe you, because it is unusual for even a little filth to exist in something pure. Darkness is not the portion of the sun, and the bright spirit has never been the product of the evil spirit. How are you so indignant at the attacks of the destructive Belial, although you are associated with the heavenly spirit? If even with such help you bow to the ground, then, alas! Alas! how powerful is your destructive sin (2)! I'm alive and dead. He who is wise will agree to this. I am dead in soul, but my flesh wants to be strong. Let my soul live better and my flesh die (2)! There is a matter for you, my soul, and, if you like, an important matter. Examine yourself, what you are, where you should strive, where you came from and where you should stop; Is this really the life you are living now, or is there another besides it? You care, my soul! Purify your life in the following way: think about God and God’s mysteries; think about what came before the Universe and what this Universe means to you; where did it come from and where will it reach? You care, my soul! Purify your life with such reflections: how God rules the helm of the Universe and turns it around; Why is one thing permanent, and the other fleeting, and why is our life especially subject to twists and turns? You care, my soul! Turn your gaze to the One God. What glory did I have before and what reproach am I now? What is this conjugation in me and what is the end of my life? Think about all this and stop your mind from wandering. You have something to do, my soul! Whatever you endure, do not be exhausted (2)! Do not indulge, soul, in the whirlwinds of the soaring mind, but do not forget your life when you approach the flesh, the hidden and obvious fleshly shortcomings (2)! Let us assume that you have everything that Gyges 69, showered with gold, possessed, and, silently ruling, with one turn of the ring you set everything in motion. Let us assume that gold will flow to you like a river, that you will become proud, like the Lydian king, and that the Persian Cyrus himself, magnified by the power of his thrones, will sit below you. Let us assume that you will take Troy with the notorious armies, that peoples and cities will sculpt your face in copper, that with one wave you will set popular assemblies in motion, that your speeches will be rewarded with crowns, that you will show the spirit in the courts of Demosthenes 71, that Lycurgus and Solon 72 will yield to you in legislation. May Omir’s Muse live in your chest, may you have a Platonic language, which people consider to be honey-melting, and indeed it is! Let us suppose that you entangle everyone with strong objections, as if with an inevitable and cunningly cast net. Let us suppose that you turn everything upside down, with Aristotle or with some new Pyrrhones, weaving concepts into unoriginal labyrinths. Let us assume that you, inspired, will be carried upward by these fabulous (whatever they mean) Pegasus or the arrow of the Scythian Avaris 73 . All this that I have said, as well as a brilliant marriage, a sybaritic table and everything else that our thought exalts, will it bring you as much benefit as it will benefit you if you put all this below yourself, and keep in mind the dignity of the soul, know: where it came from, to whom and where it should return, and what aspiration in it is in accordance with reason? Since, as I guess myself and as I hear from the wise, the soul is a kind of Divine stream and comes to us from above or the whole, or its ruler and ruler is the mind, then it has one thing, the only natural thing for it, to soar the mountain, enter into communication with God, constantly directing its gaze to what is related to it, as little as possible enslaving to the infirmities of the body, for the body itself strives for the earth, and the soul is drawn downwards, leading into this pleasant wandering by visible objects, into this darkness of the senses, in which the soul, not controlled by reason, gradually sinks, falls lower and lower. But if the mind controls her and often, like a bridle, restrains her with a word, then, exalted by him, perhaps she will soon reach the sacred mountain city, and finally, she will receive what she has long desired, that is, having passed through all the veils, all the present shadows, all the local fortune-telling, all the reflections of beauty in the mirrors, with her unveiled mind she will see the unveiled good, what it is in itself, and will stop her wandering, saturated with the light that she wanted to be worthy of, and having prevailed there with the highest beauty. For He who created everything with the all-wise Word, through the dissolution of opposites, created the ineffable harmony of the universe and brought this world from disorder to order, showed an even greater miracle in the nature of a living being (2). Sacrifice your soul to God above all else (2). Tell me, friend, does a servant really seem to you something more superior than a wife? At least that's not my thought. For truly we are all prisoners of the flesh, and the Divine particle is mixed in us for the worse. What's better? Should the unfortunate soul be distracted from the flesh or tied to it with even more difficult bonds (2)? Who doesn’t praise a plant that’s just bursting with flowers? Who is not pleased by the harvest that is just starting and promising a timely harvest? Who is not pleased by the newborn soul, as soon as it is prepared for God, which begins to throw off earthly shackles in order to enter into unity with God and see itself? the truth of what now sees only shadows (2)? Ixion is the mythical king of the Lapiths. Zeus endowed him with immortality, but as punishment for his wickedness, Ixion in Tartarus is tied to an ever-rotating fiery wheel. – Approx. ed. Encouragement is temptation, seduction. – Approx. ed. Gyges - in the 6th century. BC king of Lydia, a historical region in western Asia Minor. – Approx. ed. Cyrus II is the Persian king who defeated the Lydian king Croesus, who ruled after Gyges. – Approx. ed. Demosthenes - Athenian orator and politician of the 4th century. BC – Approx. ed. Lycurgus is the legendary legislator of Sparta. Solon - Athenian politician and poet of the 7th-6th centuries. BC Pegasus is a winged horse in Greek mythology, the horse of poets. Scythian is one of three brothers (the others are Agathyrs and Gelon), the only one who managed to pull his father’s bow and girdle himself with his belt, as a result of which he became the first king of Scythia. – Approx. ed. You might be interested in: